Small-Scale Reflections On A Great House
by A K Ramanujan
(1971)
The speaker of the poem says that he thinks that whatever enters the
ancestral home nothing goes out of it. Such things get lost in the many things which
are already lost in the house.
1.
A stray cow if enters the house is
accepted, fed and sheltered.
2.
Library books which ought to be returned
are also held back at home and rot.
3.
Neighbours' dishes which come in during
festivals also remain here.
4.
Servants once employed work here and
never leave the home.
5.
Phonographs which are bought and brought
in also never go out probably even irrespective of their working condition.
6.
Acquired hereditary problems such as
epilepsy also remain in the blood of the members.
7.
Sons-In-Law who come in beginning
residing here.
8.
Daughters-In-Law also come and are resided
here.
9.
The songs sung by beggars also when
heard inside the house do not cease because the Cook of the house keeps humming
the tune after the beggars are gone.
Not only that the things which enter do not leave the home, the things
which go out from home also return.
1.
Cotton goes out but comes back
processed.
2.
Letters are sent out from the home but
sent back to it when it could not reach the address.
3.
Some ideas shared outside by some uncle
of the house also comes back with great developed matter.
4.
Daughters who are given in marriage also
come back owing to their incompatibility with their husbands.
5.
Sons who run away from the house send
back grandchildren.
6.
In 1943, a nephew who had joined the
military force came back as a dead body.
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